In emergency situations, time is of the essence in dispatching emergency responders. Not only must an emergency responder be able to arrive at an incident quickly, but the right type of emergency responder must be dispatched to deal with the special circumstances of the incident. For example, a hostage situation might require an emergency responder with hostage negotiation skills, while a potential drowning situation might require an emergency responder with water rescue skills.
Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems are well known in the art, especially in the dispatching of emergency responders to various emergency incidents. Among other things, CAD systems typically gather and store information about available emergency responders including available emergency personnel (e.g., EMTs, firefighters, police officers, etc.) as well as available emergency vehicles (e.g., ambulances, fire vehicles, police vehicles, med-flight helicopters, boats, etc.) and related equipment (e.g., whether or not a particular vehicle is equipped with a “jaws of life”). For convenience, the term “unit” may be used herein to refer to one or more emergency responders and related equipment dispatched to an incident (e.g., a police unit may include a specific police vehicle and one or more police officers who are utilizing that police vehicle).
CAD systems typically also gather and store information about each emergency incident, such as, for example, the location and type of emergency, among others. Such information may be gathered and stored automatically (e.g., through any of a variety of computer-based communication systems) and/or by a call-taker who gathers the information and enters it into the CAD system. The CAD system then can assist dispatchers in assigning tasks for the emergency responders, for example, by making a recommendation of which emergency personnel and/or vehicle(s) to assign to a particular emergency incident based upon criteria such as the type of emergency, the proximity of emergency responders to the emergency location, the status of each available emergency responder (e.g., whether or not a particular emergency responder is currently responding to an emergency incident), necessary equipment for the emergency incident (e.g., jaws of life), necessary skills for the emergency incident (e.g. suicide negotiation skills, water rescue skills, etc.), or minimal turns (for long ladder fire trucks), among others.
After responding to an emergency incident, it is often required for a party to be transported to a facility, such as, for example, a hospital or detention center. Therefore, in addition to keeping track of emergency personnel and vehicles, some CAD systems also gather and store information about each of a number of available facilities, such as, for example, the type of facility, the location of the facility, and the services provided by the facility (e.g., general emergency care vs. specialty treatments), among others. The CAD system then can assist dispatchers in assigning an emergency responder to an emergency incident and then to a facility, for example, by making a facility recommendation based on criteria such as the type and severity of care needed by the patient or victim, the capabilities of available facilities, and the proximity of available facilities to the emergency location, among others. For example, a dispatcher typically would prefer to assign an ambulance to the closest hospital, but in some cases the CAD system may recommend a second hospital that is further away (e.g., the closest hospital may only provide general emergency care while the patient within the ambulance may require specialty treatment, such as cardiac care, that is only provided by the second hospital that is further away).
In the past, first responders often were required to check in with the emergency dispatcher on a regular basis via radio to essentially say “I am ok.” In some cases, first responders additionally had the ability to issue a “unit emergency alarm” if equipped with device such as a digital radio, a mobile laptop device in the vehicle (e.g., Intergraph Mobile for Public Safety), or a mobile smartphone application (e.g., Intergraph Mobile Responder). If the first responder did not check in on time, the emergency dispatcher would reach out to the first responder for a status update—typically via radio. This cycle repeated throughout the duration of a first responder's shift. The contacts and the responses typically were saved in the CAD system for auditability.
Since this method was procedural and had no automation support behind it, there was always a communication lag between updates, which could lead to safety issues for the first responders and additional work for the emergency dispatchers. For example, if the first responder was incapacitated, then the first responder would be unable to check in or issue an alarm, which would place a burden on the emergency dispatcher to check in with the first responder and would cause delay in dispatching additional resources to attend to the emergency and/or to help the first responder. Also, in many cases, the first responder would issue the alarm by mistake (e.g., inadvertently hitting the send button in the heat of action), in which case the dispatcher would have to respond to the erroneous alarm, e.g., by dispatching unneeded resources or to confirm whether or not there was a legitimate emergency. This method also was unreliable and subjective in that it depended on the first responder to accurately report his or her status. For example, a first responder may be injured, tired, or placed under a great deal of stress and yet report to the emergency dispatcher that all is fine.
Later, devices were developed to generate a “unit emergency alarm” automatically, e.g., upon detecting the sound of a gunshot (e.g., using a built-in microphone) or upon detecting that the first responder has fallen or has not moved in some amount of time (e.g., using a built-in inertial sensor). Such devices could alert the emergency dispatcher even if the first responder was incapacitated, but also could be prone to generating erroneous alarms. Some devices additionally could provide location information to the emergency dispatcher, e.g., using GPS location.
Overall, methods and devices of the types discussed above provide minimal information to the emergency dispatcher regarding the status of the first responder. Furthermore, such methods and devices generally do not account for the physical condition of the emergency responders, which can affect their ability to effectively handle a particular incident. For example, an emergency responder who is still stressed following a shootout or is exhausted following a foot chase might be a bad choice to respond to a new incident even if that emergency responder can get to the incident sooner than other emergency responders and is otherwise qualified to handle the incident.